Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application File S. 10,688, Abel Ford, New York

SERVICE
SERVICE New York.
NUMBER _____
Ford, Abel
S 10.688
carded.
CONTENTS

2273
New York
Abel Ford
of Reupelsaerville in the State of New York who was a Private in the Company commanded by Captain Benjamin of the Regt. commanded by in the New York line for 7 months, —
Inscribed on the Roll of New York at the rate of 23 Dollars 33 Cents per annum to commence on the 4th day of March, 1831.
Certificate of Pension issued the 22 day of Novem- ber 1832. and sent to J.B. Moore Reupelsaerville N.Y.
  Arrears to 4th of Sept. 1832  $34 99    Pension allowance ending 4 Mar 33  11. 66     $46.65  
{ Revolutionary Claim, } { Act June 7, 1832. }
Recorded by John Cromwell
Clerk.
Book D
Vol. 5
Page 37

State of New York
Albany county ss. On this 13 th day of August 1832. personally appeared before Joseph B. Moore a Judge of the County Courts of the County of Albany and State of New York Abel Ford (a resident of the town of Rensselaerville in the County of Albany and State of New York aged 87 years the 27. August last) who being first duly sworn according to law, doth on his oath make the following declaration, in order to obtain the benefit of the act of Congress passed June 7. 1832
That he entered the service of the United States under the following named officers, and served as herein stated -
He resided at the commencement of the Revolutionary War in the town of Canaan in the County of Columbia in the State of New York, and continued to reside there except when he was in the said service until the close of the said War.
He served in the Army of the United States as a volunteer during the said War at different periods at least Seven Months . But it is almost impossible for him to tell the particular years he served in, and all the officers names he served under. He however recollects that in the year 1776 (as he believes) he was in the said service one month in Capt Benjamin's Company and went in said Company to Fort Edward in New York, and from there was marched to Johnson-town in the said State, where he was dismissed, thinking it was in the fall of the year. In the year that Burgoyne was taken, in the month of July he was again in the said service and was under the command of Lt. Munsell and went to the north at Fort Edward and about that part of the country - In the fall of the same year he was again in service and was gone at this time at least one month .

In the fall of 1777 He was again called out and went to the South, at Bemis Heights . His officers names at this time was Lieut Castle and Major Douglass. He was at the action or engagement of Tuesday at Bemis Heights , and staid there untill within two or three days before Burgoyne surrendered, when he was dismissed and he returned home. He was gone from home and was out in the service at this time at least one month .
He went at another time to Bemis Heights under Colo Waterman, but cannot tell the year, and was in the service about one month or more. At another time he was in the said service and belonged to Capt Davis Company and went to Cherry Valley in the state of New York, and kept guard, more than one month , but cannot tell the year; a Capt Warner was there at the same time. He belonged to Capt James Phelps Company for the term of two months and was in the said service and engaged during that time in pursuing Tories, keeping and kept guard at a place between Kinderhook and Albany, but does not recollect the name of the place, nor the year, during which he performed this service. At one time he was sent to Kinderhook to keep guard where he kept guard and belonged, (he thinks) to Capt Benjamins Company, and staid two weeks or more - He was frequently called out into the said service and was gone two or three days and often a week or more, during the whole of the war. Old age and disease has very much impaired his recollection so that he cannot particularize every time and place when he was in the service. But he well knows that he was in actual service in the defence of his Country as a private soldier, in the militia, in an embodied corps, for more than seven

months, and he has did the duty of a Sergeant when he was in the said service but cannot particularly recol- -lect, what portion of the time. He never received a written discharge, nor has he any documentary evidence, nor does he know of any person he can pro- -cure to testify to his service, except Samuel Jenkins. He resides 28 Miles from the City of Albany where the Courts of Record for the County of Albany are held. and is very infirm and wholly unable to go that distance to attend the Courts. He hereby relinquishes every claim whatsoever to a pension or annuity except the present, and declares that his name is not on the pension roll of the agency of any State. He is unable to write his name for want of loss of eye sight, and being dis- -eased.
Sworn to and subscribed Abiel his Ford the day and year aforesaid mark Before me J. V. B. Moore Judge of Albany County Courts.
We Beth Paddock a clergyman, residing in the town of Rensselaerville in the County of Albany and State of New York and Sylvanus Parrington residing in the same place, hereby certify, that we are well acquainted with Abiel Ford who has sub- -scribed and sworn to the above declaration; that we believe him to be 87 years of age or nearly that; that he is reputed and believed in the neighbourhood where he resides, to have been a soldier of the revolution and that we concur in that opinion
Sworn and subscribed Beth Paddock the day and year aforesaid Sylvanus Parrington Before me J. V. B. Moore Judge of Albany County Courts.

State of New York
Albany County ss. Daniel Jenkins residing in the town of Rensselaerville in the County of Albany and State aforesaid aged 77 years and upwards being duly sworn says that he well knows Abiel Ford the soldier who has subscribed and sworn to the within declaration, and has known him ever since the commencement of the Revolutionary War and this deponent further says, that he well recollects that the said Abiel Ford did serve as a soldier in the Army of the United States during the said War. That he was well acquainted with Capt. Benjamin & Phelps Lieuts. Mense & Hastie. Col. Whiting and Waterman that the said Lieut. Mense was killed when in the service at the North. That he knows that the said Abiel Ford was out in the said service at different times, but he does not recollect all the particular places he went to, He however recollects that he was at Kinderhook at one time in the said service, and also knows that the said Abiel Ford was at the North the year Burgoyne was taken, and always understood that he was at the surrender of Burgoyne in the fall of 1777. He this deponent was frequently with the said Ford out on alarms, and on short periods of service. And this deponent further says that the said Abiel Ford is a man of truth and veracity, and that full credit is to be given to his statement, and further that he this deponent verily believes the facts and circumstances stated in the declaration of the said Ford to be substantially true.
Sworn and subscribed this 13 th day of August 1832 Before me
Daniel Jenkins
J. B. Moore Judge of Albany County Court

State of New York
Albany County ss
I the subscribed a judge of the County Courts of the County of Albany do hereby certify and declare my opinion, after the investigation of the matter and after putting the interrogatories prescribed by the War Department, that the abovenamed Applicant Abel Ford, was a revolutionary soldier, and served as he states. And I do further certify that I am well acquainted with Seth Paddock and Sylvanus Purington who have signed the preceding Certificate and Samuel Jenkins who has subscribed and sworn to the above affidavit that they all reside in the said town of Rensselaerville, that the said Seth Paddock is a Clergyman, and that the said Sylvanus Purington and Samuel Jenkins are very respectable and credible persons and that their statement is entitled to full credit and belief. And I do also certify that the said applicant cannot attend the court by reason of bodily infirmity. In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 13 th day of August 1832
J. B. Moore
State of New York Albany County
Clerk's Office ss I Conrad A. Ten Eyck Clerk of the City and County of Albany do hereby certify, that Joseph B. Moore before whom the foregoing declaration, Certificate and affidavit were sworn, and who has made the above Certificate is a judge of the County Courts of the County of Albany, and that the signature "J. B. Moore" to the said declaration, affidavit and Certificate, is his genuine signature
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of the said County this 16 th day of August 1832
C. A. Ten Eyck clerk

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
BUREAU OF PENSIONS.
Washington, D. C., _____, 19_____
In reply to your request of _____, received _____ for a statement of the military history of Abel Ford , a soldier of the REVOLUTIONARY WAR, you will find below the desired information as contained in his (or his widow's) application for pension on file in this Bureau. S. 10688.
   DATES OF ENLISTMENT OR APPOINTMENT. LENGTH OF SERVICE. RANK. OFFICERS UNDER WHOM SERVICE WAS RENDERED. STATE.   CAPTAIN. COLONEL.     Fall 1776 1 mo Sgt. Benjamin ✓ N.Y.   July 1777 1 mo McIntyre† ✓   Fall 1777 1 mo Castle Major Douglass.   ✓ 1 mo. ✓ Waterman   ✓ 1 mo Davis. ✓   ✓ 2 mos Jamies Rhea ✓   ✓ 2 wks Benjamin ✓  
Battles engaged in, Bemis Heights Residence of soldier at enlistment, Canaan, Columbia Co. N.Y. Date of application for pension, August 13. 1832. His claim was allowed. Residence at date of application, Bernersville Co. Albany Co. N.Y. Age at date of application, 6. Aug 27. 1745 at Peekskill, Westchester Co. N.Y. Remarks: there is no family data on file.
Respectfully,
Commissioner.

Rev Sue
507 Mack Road,
Ann Arbor, Mich.
Feb. 3, 1916.
Commissioner of Pensions, Washington, D.C.
Dear Sir:-
I am a member of Sarah Caswell Angell Chapter D. A. R. in this city and am searching for more ancestors who were Revolutionary patriots.
M.P.H. I am descended from an Abel Ford of Mass. b 1745, according to my record which may not be correct, son of Jesse Ford who married Mary Crooker Oct. 17, 1733 at Pembroke. Abel Ford married Abigail Skinner, b Jan. 15, 1750. Abel died May 24, 1835, Preston Hollow, N.Y. Their son Reuben Ford b. Rensselaerville, N.Y., October 6, 1771.
I am also descended from Reuben Lewis of N.Y. State who is said to have been born in Connecticut and to have lived in Onondaga, Chenango, Cayuga and Livingston Counties, N.Y. I feel quite sure that he lived at Big Tree, N.Y. for a number of years as three of his children are said to have been born there from 1790 on. He was in Frenchtown (Monroe), Mich. in 1806 and he and his son Silas , b. 1790 were with Hull at Detroit, 1812 . He went to Cleveland, O. in 1813 and in 1816 went to N. Middleton, Ky. and died at Winchester, Ky. 1839.
Will you kindly furnish me an abstract as full as possible of the declaration for pension if either or both of these men drew a pension?
Very truly yours,
(Mrs.) Dorothy Avery Lewis Hanchett.

30 Washington Ave Bath on Hudson N.Y. Feb 27. 1901.
To The Commissioner of Pensions. Dear Sir -
Have you any record of one Abel Ford as a Revolution- ary pensioner.
He was a private in Capt John Davis Co. 17 Reg. N.Y. militia, William B. Whitrig Col.
If there is any record does it give any date of service. The record at-

Albany does not give any thing except name, capt, & company.
Hoping you may be able to help me, I am Very truly
Helen S. Williams

Rev. War
10,688
INVALID.
File No. 10,688
Abel Ford Rev War
Act: June 9 th 1832
Index:—Vol. A , Page 180
[Arrangement of 1870.]
Mar. 22, 1901 Mrs. Helen S. Williams Bath on Hudson N.Y.
1916 Feb 26. History to Mrs. D.A.G. Hanchett. M.B.H.

Abel Ford, Rensselaerville Private Benjamin — N.Y. 7 months —
7.11.

State of New York
Albany County ss. Personally appeared before me the undersigned a Justice of the peace of the County of Albany and State aforesaid Abel Lord aged 87 years and upwards who being duly sworn, deposeth and saith that by reason of old age, and the consequent loss of memory he cannot swear positively as to the precise length of his service, but according to the best of his recollection he served not less than the periods mentioned below, and in the following grades; For Seven Months . I served as a Sergeant - viz -
I served 1 month in Capt Benjamin Company as a Sergeant
I served 1 month in Lt Munsell Company as a Sergeant
I served 1 month under Lt Castle as a Sergeant
I served 1 month in Colo Waterman Regiment as a Sergeant
I served 1 month in Capt Davis Company as a Sergeant
I served 2 Months in Capt Phelps Company as a Sergeant -
And for such service I claim a pension -
He was born at the town of Peekskill in the County of Westchester in the State of New York on the 27 th of August A.D. 1745 and was removed when a child into the States of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut by his father, where he continued to reside there until he was a young Man. He then removed

to America in Dutchess County where he lived two years, then then removed to Canaan in the County of Columbia in the State of New York where he resided at the time he entered the said service, and continued to reside there until he removed to Poughkeepsie his present place of residence where he has lived for the last 34 years -
He has a record of his age in his Bible now in his house -
He saw Genl Gates and the principal Continental Officers at Bemis Heights but he does not recollect what Continental or militia regiments he served with -
He is known to Revd Seth Packard, Sylvanus Purington, Peter Kels, William Elsbree, Warner Barnes, Jeremiah Hollenbeck and others who reside in his present neighborhood and who can testify to his character for veracity and their belief of his services as a soldier of the revolution -
He is very old and infirm and his health is very feeble and he cannot possibly go to Court to swear to his declaration, nor can he possibly for want of recollection give a more detailed statement than he has in his declaration hereto annexed of his services . He well knows that he served at other times as a private soldier, but he cannot enumerate each time sufficiently definite to claim a pension therefore - and he only claims a pension for Seven months service as a Sergeant which he is very sure is correct -
He hereby relinquishes every claim

whatevers to a pension other than the one under the act of June 7. 1832 -
He has no documentary evidence in relation to his services, nor can he possibly procure any witness to testify to his services except Samuel Jenkins who has made an affidavit hereto an- -nexed - He can not write his name having lost the use of his hand by old age and disease
Sworn and subscribed this 11 th day of November 1832 Before me
Abel his Ford mark
J. B. Moore Justice of the Peace
State of New York
Albany County ss I Conrad A. Ten Eyck Clerk of the City and County of Albany in the State aforesaid do hereby certify that Joseph B. Moore before whom the foregoing affidavit was sworn is a Justice of the peace of the said County of Albany duly commissioned and sworn, and that the signature "J. B. Moore" to the said affidavit is his genuine signature - In Testimony whereof I have here unto set my hand and affixed the seal of the said County, this 14 th day of November 1832
C. A. Ten Eyck Clerk

BOUNTY LAND WARRANT RECORD CARD*
NAME Ford, Abijah GRADE Private LINE Rhode Island
WARRANT NUMBER 3123 ACREAGE 100 ISSUED Dec. 1, 1789 To William Albertson, assignee
*The information concerning the issuance of warrants carded on this form is found in volumes 2 to 4 of "Land Warrants Issued Prior to 1800" which are registers of bounty land warrants issued to non-commissioned officers and privates under congressional resolutions of September 16, 1776, and subsequent dates. Other records relative to the applications for warrants appear to have been destroyed in the War Department fire of November 9, 1800. Information concerning warrants surrendered to the Federal Government is to be found in General Land Office records in The National Archives.